Microsoft wants to send notifications through your clothes

As if it wasn’t enough that our phones were ringing, vibrating and flashing all the time. As if it wasn’t enough that we get notified on the smartphone, desktop, tablet, laptop, watch.

Microsoft wants our clothes to notify us when we get a message or an email by – sending tiny electrical shocks to the body.

According to a report by Sky News, Microsoft has patented such technology.

The patent application points out that it is increasingly rude in society to constantly take out your phone to check for new text messages and emails, while vibrating alerts are often not felt.

That’s why Microsoft suggests we should get physically nudged every time a newsletter hits our inbox.

'Techniques are described herein that are capable of providing electrical stimuli to skin of a user to convey information to the user. For instance, the electrical stimuli may inform the user of an event, a condition, etc.'

In the patent's diagrams, Microsoft includes a shoe and a T-shirt as examples of clothing which could used to incorporate the stimulus.

The patent was filed back in 2014, but was unveiled last Thursday.

However, as with a lot of patents, this one might never actually be applied to technology. Big tech companies patent different things mostly to stop their competition from doing the same and getting the upper hand in any battle.

For example, Apple has recently patented technology which allows data sharing through two Watches by fist-bumping or shaking hands. Even though it sounds interesting, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will ever be implemented.